War Outside and Thunder in Our Hearts
by hazel-k
Summary: "Hermione would rather be at Hogwarts, standing side by side with Harry and Ron (...) But she was trapped in there with the last person she thought she would ever have to share a house with." When Hermione finds Draco Malfoy without memory, she's forced to take care of him - yet it seems like destiny had something else in store.
1. Memory Loss

**A/N: I got a writer's block while writing I Fell Under Your Spell, and this idea for a new story just kept running around my head so I gave it a shot and I'm already finishing it. I hope that the first chapter isn't too boring, but it is always hard to start! But I'm feeling really confident about this one, so... give me some feedback about what you think! **

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**April 24, 1998.**

Even standing in the middle of the day, there's no sun appearing through the enormous clouds that paint the sky in tones of grey. The pines are covered with small layers of snow, that with the wind fly to the ground and paint it even more white.

Hermione can feel the cold air getting through the window, making the inside of the house chilly and uncomfortable. She had expected that the wooden house that she chose would protect them from all this gelid weather but not even with the fireplace on, the house could get warmer.

The radio is on and Hermione is continuously waiting to hear some news; she hasn't seen Harry and Ron for days, now. Since she arrived to that house, Hermione turned on the radio and listened to it carefully, hoping not to hear Harry or Ron's names on the list of deaths that happens everyday, now.

At night, she couldn't get any sleep. Hermione would rather be at Hogwarts, standing side by side with Harry and Ron waiting for the arrival of Voldermort; fighting to bring peace back. But she was trapped in there with the last person she thought she would ever have to share a house with.

Hermione remembers when she came across him, just four days ago.

_Her eyes were opened wide while she tried to gather all the information she just got. In front of her, he kept moaning while he tried to sit against a tree "Stay here!" She demands, even knowing that he couldn't even get himself up. Hermione knows because she tried._

_Now, she's running to the last place she had seen Harry and Ron. For Hermione's luck, they are still there and she rushes to get closer to them "I need your help. I found something" Hermione mutters, her throat burning from running._

_"What did you find?" Harry asks her, placing a hand on her shoulder trying to calm her down._

_"I found Draco Malfoy. Without memory" Hermione blurts out, without even trying to sound calm. She sees the confusing expression on Harry and Ron's faces._

_"How do you know that?" Harry asks. Hermione breaths in and out several times before she answers. Then she starts telling that she went for a walk around the forrest, protecting the area so that they could get some rest, when she found Draco Malfoy laying in the middle of brown leaves. When she demands him to get up and to follow her back to their tent, the only thing he does is moan with pain and asking where he was._

_Harry and Ron stay in silence for a while, processing what Hermione just told them. You could even hear a leaf fall from a tree and when they hear Malfoy through the forrest, letting out a bloodcurdling scream, they wake up from their thoughts._

_"I say he's just pretending." Ron groans and grabs his wand "How much do you want to bet that when you get back to that same place, he's not going to be there? And then we lose a source of information."_

_"You just heard him scream! Ron, I don't think he's-" Hermione starts saying but Ron cuts her off._

_"You're on his side now? Is it something like a contagious disease? You spent a few minutes in the same space as that bastard and you're on his side?" Ron snaps and Hermione narrows her eyes at him._

_"What are you saying? Listen to yourself!" Hermione grabs her wand as well "If you are so suspicious about it, why don't you come and see it?"_

_Ron only narrows his eyes at her when Hermione starts walking towards the same place she came from. It takes only a few seconds to see Malfoy laying between the leaves, blood all over his shirt._

_"See? He's still here." Hermione sighs, with relief. She had to admit that when Ron said that, she thought about it; Malfoy could possibly be pretending so that Hermione could let him leave without him getting hurt. But now, that she was back in that place and she sees Malfoy still sitting on the ground, she thinks about it again; Malfoy is much more strong than Hermione and could easily leave the room without even getting a scratch._

_"Get up!" Ron yells at him and Malfoy looks at him with his eyebrows narrowed "What? Don't you understand what I'm saying? Get up, you bastard!"_

_Ron grabs his wand "Alarte Ascendare!" He yells and Draco is shot into the air, only to fall violently, making leaves momentarily fly to the air when he hits the ground. He moans and twitches on the floor, his hand presses against his side._

_"Ron, he's hurt!" Hermione yells and gets closer to him. Ron stretches a hand to push Hermione back._

_"Get up! Alarte Ascendare!" Ron shouts again. Draco is shot again into the air._

_"Aresto Momentum!" Hermione yells and Malfoy slowly lays on the floor. Ron looks at her with his eyes narrowed and takes a few steps to get closer to her._

_"What are you doing? I'm trying to do something here!" He yells at her._

_"Yes! You are trying to get him killed!" Hermione shouts back and they look at each other with fury in their eyes. Hermione can see from where Ron's anger is coming; she's defending their biggest enemy. The guy who bullied them through all this years; that made their life a living hell. But Hermione is a rational person. She knows that what he's doing it's not right, because they are dealing with someone's life. It doesn't matter who life it is; Malfoy can't protect himself, he's hurt and Ron would get him killed._

_"I think Hermione is right." Harry comes closer and places a hand on Hermione's shoulder. Ron opens his mouth in disbelief. _

_"What's the matter with you two? You have Draco fucking Malfoy right in front of you! You can ask him everything you want about Voldermort's strategy! He's one of them!" Ron shouts._

_"I tried to get that kind of information from him! He just doesn't remember!" Hermione says and Ron rolls his eyes._

_"Did you? Did you really try? Or did you just asked him gently if he knew something about Voldemort, without even torture him?" Ron says and waves his wand to Draco again "Crucio!"_

_Hermione takes the wand from Ron's hand and throws it to the another side of where they were standing. While Ron looks at Hermione with his eyes narrowed, they can hear the cry of Draco Malfoy while he twitches in pain on the ground "Stop! Just stop for a minute, Ron, and think about what you are doing!"_

_"Listen to what the fuck she's saying. I know nothing" Draco hisses and the trio looks, at the same time, to him "Stop." he says and then his eyes close._

_"Since you two believe in Malfoy so much, take care of him. I'm done with you." He mutters and, after getting his wand back, he walks towards their tent. Hermione gulps, trying not to cry while she sees Ron leaving them once more._

_"He's going to be alright," Harry says "He's just upset with everything that's happening."_

_After Harry talked to Hermione, and hear her beg to find someone else to take care of Malfoy, they planned everything out. A half an hour later, Hermione had gathered her things and Malfoy and her were disappearing from the forrest._

She hated to be there. She hated the fact that she was feeling so useless; Hermione was taking care of the guy that she hated the most, while her friends were waiting for countless Death Eaters that could attack them at any time, any day. She was stuck in a house with Malfoy, and the only thing that she kept thinking was what if he woke up and suddenly he remembers everything and kill her? Nobody would get there on time, because they were all alone in a place full of mountains.

"Sorry," His hoarse voice came from behind her and Hermione jumped in her place, immediately turning back to look at him, her heart beating out of compass "You need to help me out with this."

"Oh, sure." Hermione said when he pointed to his left side. Malfoy was already shirtless, so it was kind of a relief for Hermione, because it was embarrassing for her to ask him to take off his shirt. Carefully, she took off the bandages that she had put over his wound hours ago, that were now red from the blood that kept coming out of it.

"_Vulnera Sanentur_" Hermione mutters and the wound closes a little more, but not entirely. She had never seen a wound as deep as that one; it had been four days since she tried her best to make it better, but this wound, even with her saying numerous spells, didn't heal quickly.

After she put a new layer of bandages over his wound, she looked to him for a brief moment "And the one in your head? Does it still hurts?" she asks.

Draco places two fingers above the wound in his forehead and makes a grimace "Not if I don't touch it." Malfoy doesn't remember much about what happened, but still he had the same personality; he was proud, arrogant and cold.

"You can sit there," she points with her chin to the couch, while she puts away her first aid box and walks towards the kitchen "I will prepare you something to eat."

Hermione places her hands on the counter for a while and lowers her head, closing her eyes. It was not like she wanted to see all the horror that was going to happen at the War; she didn't want to see people's lives, people that she had known for years, being sucked out of them. But yet, she wanted to be there, trying to protect everybody. Trying to reduce the number of deaths.

"They could've chosen a warmer house. Or place." She hears Malfoy sitting on the couch and then letting out a sigh.

"Well, the point is that Voldemort doesn't find us," Hermione says as she starts taking all the things she needs to do some food, from her bag "If we were standing in an obvious place, we could be dead by now." She doesn't even tries to hide the rage in her voice, and the way Malfoy shifts in the couch, makes her realize that he noticed it.

Silence settles in the house. Hermione likes it better this way, so she can hear her thoughts, organize them and listen to the radio, hoping to hear good news.

"What are you cooking?" Malfoy asks and Hermione sighs.

"Muggle food," she answers, coldly "Not the type of food that you would like to eat on your regular days, but now you're sick and I'm in charge, so that's what you're going to have to eat."

She hears his footsteps coming towards her and then stopping. Hermione looks to her side and Malfoy is standing by the door "Maybe you should get a hold on that arrogant attitude, since you're in charge." He snaps.

"Oh, I'm sorry. But if I recall, that has been the way you have treated me for seven whole years." Hermione says, looking back to what she is doing "Payback."

"I had my reasons." He hisses and gets back to sitting on the couch. They stay in silence until Hermione finishes cooking their dinner.

"Here," she puts a plate in front of him and a fork "It's macaroni and cheese, hope it isn't too muggle for you." She hisses and then returns to the kitchen to grab her plate.

"Where are you going?" Malfoy asks, when he sees her going to the opposite side of where he is.

"To the library." Hermione says "I like to be on my own."

She enters the library and closes the door slowly. Hermione sighs when she finds herself alone for the first time that day. All day she has been sitting on the couch, reading a book and sometimes looking to Malfoy's wound. That doesn't sound too tiring, but when you have to deal with the arrongant personality of the spoiled brat that Malfoy is, the day can turn tiring in just a second.

One of the things Hermione demanded to have on the house was a library; she didn't know how long they would stay there. Probably until the war ends, and it can take too long and the only way she could feel calm was when she has a book in her hands.

Hermione looked through some shelves and grabbed a book, sitting on her armchair with her plate of macaroni and cheese on her lap. It took her just a second to feel her muscles relax and her body sinking on the armchair. That was something worth to do.

Draco was sitting by the fireplace, his eyes looking to the red and orange flames forming shadows on the floor and walls. The sky outside was now darker, once the night had arrived. Granger was still locked on the library, without making one sound and it was bothering Draco more than he thought it would.

He remembers some stuff. He remembers everything until his fifth year, but his sixth year comes in pieces. Draco remembers a closet and remembers Dumbledore looking into his eyes as his body was thrown from the Astronomy Tower one night. It all comes in pieces, pieces that don't even have sound; so it's like it only happened in a dream. A dream that felt a lot like reality.

And then, everything goes blank and the only thing he remembers after that was waking up and seeing Granger with her wand pointed at him and demanding him to get up.

Everything that could be related to Voldemort, just went away from his mind.

It felt like he had been sent to a completely different Universe, and there's something inside his mind that is missing. And it just makes him angry. He doesn't even know where his father is! And his mother. Draco simply doesn't remember anything.

Barely even remembers the face of Voldemort.

He tries. He tries really hard to gain his memory back, and even Granger always asks him "Do you remember anything?" every morning since they got there, like it would help him getting back his memory.

The feelings are there. He still hates her guts, but he can understand her side. She's trapped in the same house as the boy who have bullied her for years, and not side by side with Scarhead and Weaselbee. It doesn't pleases Draco to be in the same house as a bookworm, either.

Draco stands up and walks towards the library door. He raises his hand, ready to knock on the door but his pride his hurting as hell. But he needs to ask her something; something that has been running in his brain all day.

"Can I come in?" Draco asks when he finally gathers the courage to knock on her door.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" He hears her grumpy voice from the other side of the door and he bites the knuckles of his hand to help him contain an answer that can possibly start a fight between them.

"Can I come in or not?" He hisses. _So much for politeness_.

Draco hears her unlock the door and then it opens. He still catches a sight of her back when she walks to the armchair strategically placed by the window. He walks into the room and looks around him. _Bookworm_ fits her like a glove. The room is full of shelves that are full of books of all sizes. _How much time does she thinks she's spending here?_

"Are you going to tell me what you want or are you just going to stand there and stare?" Hermione asks without even taking her eyes from the book. She hears Malfoy groaning and then sighing, taking a pause.

"I need to ask you something" He says between a sigh "Something important." Hermione now takes her eyes from the book and studies the expression on his face. He's serious and his eyes are looking into hers, making her feel like he could look into her soul. She closes the book and gets up. He gives her a questioning look.

"What? We're not going to stay here. This is my spot, I don't even know why I let you in, in the first place." Hermione shakes her hand, ordering him to leave the room. Draco rolls his eyes and goes back to the living room, sitting on the couch again "What is it that you want to ask me?"

Draco takes a moment to chose the right words and when he finally finds them, he doesn't look in her eyes "Why do I keep remembering Dumbledore falling from the Astronomy Tower?"

Hermione gulps. The question is left floating in the air and Hermione feels uncomfortable with it. She sits by the fireplace, and hugs her legs, placing her chin above her knees.

"There's not kind way to say this, you know..." Hermione looks to the flames and the noise of the wood breaking makes her relax "You were on Voldemort's side, you know that. And your job was to kill Dumbledore."

When Hermione looks to Malfoy, she can see the shock in his eyes. That was the first moment that she has ever seen Malfoy shocked about something "And did... Did I kill him?" he asks, and clears his throat when his voice comes out much more hoarse than he would like to. It would explain him why he kept seeing Dumbledore falling from the Astronomy Tower.

It was no surprise that Draco wasn't a big fan of Dumbledore, but killing him was something that he thought he would never be able to do. Killing _someone_ was something that Draco never thought he could do.

Hermione shakes her head slowly, biting her lip and lowering her eyes to the floor "Snape did it." Hermione mutters and this time she doesn't look to Malfoy. His surprise can be felt in the air.

Draco was surprised, and somehow relieved. Carrying the weight of knowing that he killed someone was something that he wouldn't like to feel.

But at the same time, it wasn't such a surprise. Snape always protected him for everything - even though he knew that Draco didn't like it not even a little bit - and he guesses that Snape just didn't want to make Draco take the blame for killing Dumbledore.

"What happened then?" Draco asks.

"I don't know much about your life, Malfoy." She answers, a bit bitterly "You just have to wait for your memory to come back and then you'll remember." Hermione says.

"And if it doesn't come back?" Draco asks and she looks at him with her eyebrows narrowed.

"Why wouldn't it?" He sees Granger biting her lip, and looking to the floor with her eyebrows narrowed, like she's pondering if she should or should not say something "Look, it's not a surprise that I hate you. A lot. But I believe that your memory will come back, eventually. It has to."

Draco didn't know what he could say now. Granger had never been nice to him - and he had never been nice to her. He clears his throat, and swallowing his pride, he says "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Hermione stands up and takes one more look to Malfoy "Good night."

Only when Granger closes her bedroom's door, Draco mutters "Good night."

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**I hope you guys liked it. I'm sorry if sometimes they are a bit out of character but, as I said, it is a bit hard to start. But I tried my best to keep Hermione a rational and comprehensive person all through this chapter; I also tried to make Draco be less hard on Hermione so that they could have this initial conversation.**


	2. When Fire meets Ice

**A/N:** First, thank you a lot to _murtagh799_ for helping me out with some stuff in my story. I hope I can answer correctly to everything you asked me. Thank you a lot again for your kindness. :)

_**PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU START READING:** _On the previous chapter, Ron is acting so strange and angry because of the locket. I think you're familiar with that, yes. I know my timeline isn't like the one in the book, so I'm only following Deathly Hallows's timeline in the barest sense. Anything else I forgot to explain, will be in the chapter (I hope. If you have any question about anything, please just ask me and I'll be more than available to answer you and hopefully help you out.)

**I need a beta for the rest of the story, able to give a strict edit to my story and some help with plot, so if you're a beta and you're interested or if you know any dramione beta, send me a message.**

Sorry for the grammar errors. Thank you so much for your attention.

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**April 25, 1998**

_"Hermione, I need you to understand this," Harry mutters at her, his big eyes shining behind his round glasses "I can't trust anyone else to stay with him. You're the only one that I can lean on and, trust me, if this wasn't important, I wouldn't ask you to do this. After all, I'm taking a big risk on this one, because you're the smartest-"_

_"What about Ron?" Hermione protests, crossing her arms against her chest, trying not to beat with her foot on the floor like only a child would do. Harry rolls his eyes and gives her a sideways look "Alright, fine. Maybe Ron isn't the best of our opitions. I'm sure that Malfoy would be dead before he even remembers anything."_

_Harry nods but Hermione isn't done yet "But you do have many other people that can stay with Malfoy. Like Luna and... Neville." At this, Harry chuckles, making Hermione chuckle too. She hides her face on her hand and closes her eyes "I don't really want to leave you two alone. I want to stay here."_

_"You're the only one that can deal with Malfoy. You punched him in the third year, Mione! I think you got this." Harry gives her a gentle smile, like he is begging her to relax. But it doesn't relax Hermione at all "And no, taking Malfoy with us on a Horcrux Hunt is out of the question!" warns her, when she opens her mouth._

_"I can't leave you two alone!" Hermione continues protesting, and Harry hides his face on his hands "You will probably mess up without me! It's not like I'm being cocky, but that's the truth! You will take care of you? I need to stay here, Harry."_

_"I need you to go, Hermione. Please." Harry begs now "I need you, the only rational person here, to go far away from here with Malfoy and wait until his memory is back so that then we can have some information."_

_"What if his memory doesn't come back at all?" Hermione cries._

_"It has to." He simply says._

Hermione is thinking about her last dialogue with Harry while Malfoy is standing by her side, protecting the house. Even now, Hermione doesn'r really know what compelled her to stay all alone with Draco Malfoy in a house in the middle of nowhere.

Maybe it was the way Harry begged her and told her that he really needed her to go. Or maybe was the hunger for information that was eating her inside out that made her accept such a ridiculous challenge like this one.

The only thing she knows is that she's here now, and she isn't going anywhere. Ron and Harry left for the Horcrux Hunt, because they can't just stop the world and stay with her and Malfoy until he gets his memory back. And that can take a few days - months, who knows? And it's not like Voldemort's going to wait until they have some information.

So, she was all alone and trying her best to not be mean to Malfoy. What can be, sometimes, a really hard task because he's a jackass and not even when half of his memory is gone, that can be changed.

"You have to do it better," Hermione groans and takes a few steps closer to Malfoy. She raises her left hand at the same height of her right hand, that is holding her wand "And say it clearly: _Cave Inimicum_"

"_Cave Inimicum_" Draco imitates Granger's gestures and small disturbances in the air around them appear, only to then vanish.

"Better. Now, let's try another spell." Hermione prepares to say the other spell, but Draco rolls his eyes "What? I thought you were the one that asked me to teach you some _effective_ protection spells."

"But you can be a really bad teacher," Draco explains, with a forced smile on his face "You have to be kinder."

Hermione looks at him for a while, but then explodes in laughter "Oh, you were actually being serious?" She rolls her eyes "Stop being such a lazy arse and raise that wand of yours. _Protego Totalum_. Repeat it."

Draco rolls his eyes once more and raises his wand with one hand "_Protego Totalum_" another shield floats on the surrounding air and then disappears. When Hermione finishes teaching Draco a small amount of protection spells, they start to walk around the house murmuring the spells. It takes them half an hour to completely protect the whole house from outside.

"There's a small possibility that Voldemort will ever find us here, now. Not with all this protection spells." Hermione says, feeling relief slowly settling down in her heart. Draco nods his head and they stand outside for a while, looking at the trees and the mountains that surround the small cottage where they are standing, all full with snow.

"What do you think it's happening now?" Draco asks, his eyes looking into the trees like he is expecting something to come out of there.

Hermione shakes her head slowly and looks to their feet "I don't know. And I'm afraid to know." She sighs and turns to return to the house.

"Do you already know anything about... Potter and the other guy?" Draco says, saying their names as bitter as he could.

"Ron." Hermione turns around again and looks to the grey eyes of Malfoy, that now with the clarity of the snow, look even more pale "No. I've listened to the radio, but it seems that the war hasn't started yet. And I haven't heard their names either."

Draco nods his head and looks to her eyes. He can see clearly through them. He never noticed how easy it was to see through Granger's eyes. It was like she was an open book, where you could see right in her eyes the way she was feeling. On sensitive times as the ones they were going through, it was easy for anyone to be like Granger: an open book. And, by that, he means that it's easy to get hurt.

Hermione opens the door of the cottage and gets closer to the fireplace to warm up her hands. It was crazy how cold it was outside, but they couldn't chose any place near Hogwarts; it would make it too obvious and they would be caught in a matter of hours. And they could not get caught or return to Hogwarts until Draco gets his memory back or until Voldemort is defeated.

She looks through the window and sees Malfoy outside, down on his knees, touching the snow. She wonders how he feels to lose part of his memory, putting herself on his skin and she imagines if she woke up one day and some parts of her memory had been taken away. The first thing she feels is a big whole in her chest - she imagines that she would feel empty. So, Hermione guesses that's how Malfoy really feels, but doesn't want to admit. He's too proud, always was, always will be.

Hermione shakes her head, trying to make those thoughts about Malfoy go away from her head. She opens the door for the library and grabs the book she started reading yesterday, then goes back to the living room where she sits on the floor with her back leaning against the couch.

The warmth coming from the fireplace warms up her legs and, after a while, she's not shaking anymore.

After fifteen minutes, at least it seems like fifteen minutes for Hermione, she hears the door from the cottage open and closing right away. She hears Malfoy's footsteps behind her, and she tries her best to concentrate on the book. When she stops hearing the footsteps, the muscles on her body relax like his presence, somehow, made her feel tense.

Then, she feels something cold hitting her head and her whole body freezes. Hermione's eyes are opened wide "What the hell have you done?" She yells, when she hears Malfoy laughing behind her. She looks down to her book and she sees a small quantity of snow covering the pages "You threw snow at my head?!" She yells and gets up, shaking her hair.

"You looked just too bored, Granger. Just something to light up your spirit." He says, between laughs. Hermione narrows her eyes at him.

"I was not bored! I was reading a _freaking_ book!" She yells again and throws the books at him "Maybe you should do that sometimes, because you seem to be the bored person here!"

"Yes, indeed, I was kind of bored and I thought that upsetting you was a great hobby." He shrugs and looks to the cover of the book "Guess I was right."

Hermione groans and rolls her eyes, opening the door of the house with strength and walking outside. She gathers as much snow as she can and get's back on the house, where Malfoy is waiting with his eyebrows narrowed.

"Oh, come on!" Draco lets the book fall to the floor and raises his hands in the air, in a defensive way "We both know that you can't do that. You'll just give up-" Hermione doesn't wait for Malfoy to end his sentence and throws the snow ball to his head.

"Now we're even!" Hermione shakes the snow from her hands and grabs the book that is now on the floor. She turns to go to the library when another ball of snow hits her back "Can you stop it?"

"I would, since I have no more snow here. But I accept a challenge." Draco smirks at her nodding his head towards the front door, and Hermione suddenly feels uncomfortable with his change of humor.

Hermione bites her lip, thinking twice about it. She should be listening to the radio, waiting for some news, not throwing snow balls at Malfoy. And she wasn't feeling very comfortable thinking about actually having a good time with the blonde guy in front of her - probably because she always thought that no one could have a good time with a grumpy and arrogant person like Draco Malfoy.

All that time that Hermione spent standing by the door of the library thinking about that, Draco gathered the small quantity of snow that was on the floor of the cottage and threw it against her chest.

"No, stop, stop!" Hermione yells shaking her head, calling herself stupid countless times in a row for even thinking about going outside with _him_ "I need to go take a shower." Draco rolls his eyes. Of course the fun couldn't last longer with that one.

"But I need to take a shower too and since I'm the injured one here... I'll go first," He says and walks pass her to reach the doorknob from the bathroom.

"I said it first, so get off." She tries to push Malfoy and reach the doorknob "Seriously, Malfoy. I need to take a shower, I'm freezing."

"Well, save water and shower with me Granger. Wouldn't that be an interesting time?" Malfoy smirks at her and Hermione stops pushing him and walks away from the bathroom when she feels her face heating up.

"Alright, you go first. Just... _Be quick_!" Hermione mutters.

"Refusing my offer, Granger? Sure it would make you feel warmer-"

"Just get in there and be quick!" Hermione yells and rolls her eyes. Draco let's out another grin and enters the bathroom. After a few seconds, Hermione starts to hear the water running and she go stand by the fireplace.

"Sure you don't want to join?" Hermione hears his footsteps and turns around to yell at him, but her body froze. When she's able to move, she instantly turns around and covers her eyes with her hands.

"I _can't believe _that you are standing completely naked in the middle of the room!" She says when she's able to talk, not even trying to contain the shock in her voice.

"Forgot to bring a towel" Draco grinned and then opened the door to the bathroom again "I'm just going to say this one more time-"

"What are you still doing here? Just get into the _freaking_ bathroom!" Hermione hissed between gritted teeth. But then she started hearing his footsteps towards her and, without looking to him, Hermione walked to the other side of the room "Don't you even dare to come near me when you're completely naked!"

"I'm just trying to convince you to change your mind. Last time, Granger." Draco says and he grins again when he sees her slamming her foot against the floor.

"Just go!" She yells and Draco walks towards the bathroom again and closes the door, grinning.

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Hermione looks at herself in the mirror while pressing the towel against her wet hair and running her fingers through her curls. She could easily spot small dark circles under her eyes caused by the lack of sleep, due to her skin being so pale. But, somehow, it seemed like she was even paler than she already is and that's when Hermione understands that she needs to stop thinking so much about what's happening at Hogwarts - like it was such an easy thing to do when you're a person skilled on worrying about everything and getting your mind busy with a lot of things. In other words, it wasn't easy to relax when you're Hermione Granger.

But it's just who Hermione is. She always felt the need to worry; Harry and Ron are her best friends, but they can be very clumsy and Hermione feels like she needs to worry about them, because she only wants the best for them. And the only thing she wants is that all this mess ends quickly, so that she can rest and that everything can be alright. So that she can get back to her friends, see her parents again and feel... _Normal_ again.

She looks away and leaves the bathroom, to find Malfoy by the fireplace without his shirt on "I thought I told you to wear some clothes around here-" Hermione scolded him.

"I need you to help me here" Draco points to his wound on the left side of his body, next to his stomach. Hermione nods her head and returns to the bathroom to grab her first aid box. She takes the bandages from his wound and grabs her wand "_Vulnera Sanentur_" she mutters and, again, his wound closes a bit more but not entirely. Hermione sees his stomach move as he grins "What?" she looks up.

"Nothing," he shakes his head and looks to the ceiling.

"I think you enjoy the fact that you have someone to take care of you way too much." Hermione mutters and puts a new layer of bandages over his wound.

"Don't feel _too_ important, Granger" He says, in his hoarse voice "I always had elves to take care of me."

Hermione looks at him sideways when she stands up, after ending her job "And you think that's right?" She narrows her eyes at him, in a scolding way.

"Oh, right, I forgot that you are the major supporter of the elves's rights or something." He grins after ending his sentence and Hermione looks at him, with her hands on her waist, her eyes narrowed.

"You really don't have a heart, do you?" Hermione mutters in disbelief "I wish you were an elf so that you-" A band coming from outside makes Hermione and Draco look towards the windows "What was that?" Hermione mutters, grabbing her wand, just like Draco.

"I don't know." Silence settles across the room, but then another bang comes, following by more "Stay here." He says, heading to the door with his wand up.

"What?" Hermione walks towards him as fast as she can "Are you crazy? We don't know who's standing outside and you can get yourself killed. You are injured, you can't go-"

"Do you always talk that much?" Draco looks at her and Hermione feels her face heating up, just now realizing how close they were. She takes a few steps back, but she hits with her body against his again when there's another bang hitting against the left side of the house.

"Do you think they found us?" Hermione mutters, feeling her heart beating fast and her hands sweating. Inside her head, she's begging that it is just a storm; but a storm doesn't make this much noise. So, deep down, she knows they found them.

"Just... _Stay _here. I'll be back." Draco looks at her before opening the door and then closes it again. Then, there's blue and green lights appearing from the windows and noise; a lot of noise. Hermione takes a step towards the window, trying to see what is happening, but something hits the glass and breaks it. She covers her mouth when she lets out a scream.

With her hand shaking, Hermione grabs her wand and places her other hand on the doorknob. She closes her eyes and nods her head multiple times "You _have _to do this." Hermione opens the door and a jet of green light hits her in her chest and she falls on the floor "Malfoy?" She yells, feeling panic growing in her heart.

But he doesn't answer and Hermione forces herself to get up on her feet "_Stupefy_!" She shouts against a figure that is coming towards her and she hears it hit the ground, with a moan. Hermione steps outside and, between the jets of lights, she can see three figures standing up; one of them is Malfoy and she guesses that the two staying in front of him are Death Eaters, so is the one that Hermione had hit with the spell.

She doesn't let the panic grow anymore and starts running towards Malfoy "What are you doing here?" He yells at her, when he sees her by his side.

"Shut up!" She yells back and starts waving her wound and yelling spells to disarm the Death Eaters in front of them.

"I thought I told you to stay inside!" Malfoy kept yelling at her.

"Yeah, that would be such a great idea-_Petrificus Totalus!_" Another figure hits the ground and the jets of lights stop. Hermione and Draco narrow their eyes trying to figure out who the other person is, and then the person starts running "Let's go!" Hermione says but Draco stops her.

"Stay here and take care of the others" He says and then starts running towards the woods, in the same direction where the other person went. Hermione, breathlessly, pointed to the first figure she managed to shot down "_Mobiliarbus_" the body started to fly and stopped near Hermione's feet.

Then she looked to the woods, hoping to see Malfoy coming back. But she couldn't see and hear anything and her heart started to beat quickly against her chest, like it was about to hammer it's way out of her chest. What if Malfoy didn't come back? What if the Death Eater just killed him and left to give information of where Hermione was and more Death Eaters would come back and kill her?

She closed her eyes and pressed her hand against her chest "Steady." She demanded, but her heart didn't obey her. There she was, worrying too much again. Malfoy had received his Dark Mark on their sixth year and Hermione thinks that he can probably kill the Death Eater; but then she remembers that Malfoy doesn't have any memory about being a Death Eater or about Voldemort, and she starts worrying again.

It feels like her throat is starting to close and Hermione starts to feel anxious and having trouble breathing. She lets her body fall into the ground full of snow and hugs her legs against her chest "Everything's going to be alright." The thought of being alone was making her anxious and she could already feel her eyes getting wet. What if he _doesn't_ come back? She kept thinking, with her chin leaning on her knees and staring into the trees, hoping to see the blonde hair of Malfoy appearing from there.

It's not like she is desperate for him to come back. Sure, he's a jackass. Sure, she hates him. But was hate above her fear of being alone with a forrest possibly full of Death Eaters by now?

Hermione might be the brightest witch of her age, but she has fears and one of them is being completely alone. And Malfoy is the only company she has now and the only person that can make her feel safe while they're on the middle of nowhere.

She came here to take care of Malfoy and, in some way, protect him. But she needed protection too and she felt insecure. Hermione felt like running towards that forrest looking for Draco _freaking _Malfoy.

He was the only one that could make her feel safe in that house, now.

* * *

**Hi! Just one more thing. Hope you don't find it too weird the way their relationship progressed. Remember that they have been on that house for five days now, so it's normal that they start to get more confortable with their actions towards each other.**


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